Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue: a crossroads that touches Maplewood, Roseville and St. Paul. Two county roads that combine, if only for a few feet, three cities and three county commissions.

Want a taste of the bureaucratic tangle? There’s a bike lane going in at the corner. Or rather, one side of one street on one corner. In particular, the north side of the western half of Larpenteur.

Why not the south side, too? What if a biker wants to go the other way? Well, that would be St. Paul. The project was approved for Roseville, not there.

But those same city officials who have tackled — or perhaps more appropriately, not tackled — the intersection separately for years, appear now to be trying to cut through that tangle. There’s talk of a “gateway,” a “heart,” a “village.” Community groups have been formed, a consultant hired. City officials have met multiple times in person, in a group referred to as “the electeds.”

And now, after months of meetings, there’s an energetic mix of hope and skepticism. And, of course, debate.

“Cities always push undesirables to the borders. Here you’ve got the corners of three cities. And a pawn shop across from a pawn shop,” said Sherry Sanders, president of the nearby Lake McCarrons Neighborhood Association in Roseville.

A Pawn America shop in the McCarron Hills shopping center in Roseville at the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Rice Street, where three cities come together: St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, July 13, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

“I almost feel like it’s the opposite. It’s the businesses moving in where they think they can open them,” said St. Paul councilwoman Amy Brendmoen, who’s been spearheading the effort on her side. “First and foremost, we want a higher aspirational vision for the area.”

Many just want some idea of where all these talks are headed — and wonder if there’s anything the cities can do, even if they wanted to.

“Now that the last corner’s built up, other than booting out some businesses, I don’t know what they can do there. They can’t change it that much,” said Dave Krech, who’s been managing a large strip mall containing the Lamplighter Lounge, along with a thrift store locals seem to love, at the corner for decades.

But others are determined to try.

“We’re looking for some kind of change, some sign that brings the three communities together,” said Ty Haschig, who opened a State Farm agency on the Maplewood side in January, the month before his parking lot was littered with shell casings from a shootout at a nearby nightclub. “But we’re not exactly sure what it looks like.”

Giant Wash and the Lamplighter Lounge in St. Pau at the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Rice Street, where three cities come together: St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, July 13, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

INITIAL TALKS

Initial talks about the intersection took place over pancakes, over a year ago. Jonathan Weinhagen, then-vice president of St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, met with city officials to talk about the need to navigate the “multi-jurisdictional maze.” The “gateway” with plenty of concrete, a clutter of telephone poles, and nothing to tie any of it together.

“Because cities plan inward … the intersection was an afterthought,” Weinhagen said. “They (city officials) tend to focus on main street. … What you see on the fringes is what happened at Rice and Larpenteur.”

Roseville had been looking at its southeastern-most corner since 2015, when officials identified it — the city’s lowest-income census track — as a top priority in their yearly policy plan. On the St. Paul side, North End residents have been saying they’ve felt neglected by city officials for years, if not decades.

“I don’t think anybody had a sense of ownership, but everyone has a piece,” said Roseville community development director Kari Collins, who sits with the “electeds.” “Now as a collective, there is a sense of ownership.”

There’s been plenty of talk about tying everything together somehow. But thus far, no solid vision. Some have talked about such things as heightened design standards, a land-use table that’s more restrictive. It all runs into the corner’s biggest challenge: it’s all privately owned, with no vacancies.

“With the business that the thrift store has had, we’re pretty much at the limit for parking,” said Kresh, who manages the strip mall with the largest expanse of concrete at the corner, now being eyed for its possibilities. Kresh notes that in the past year, he painted the whole building, added signage and striped the parking lot.

What else would cities ask him to do, he wonders?

The county roads themselves are, of course, owned by the county. And everything up to a foot past the sidewalk.

But as far as anything past that sidewalk, “it’s not a county role,” said Ramsey County planner Josh Olson, who has been talking with the cities about their borderland. “We don’t have a particular interest in that particular corner as far as its particular uses.”

Still, Brendmoen’s thinking extends to such things as tearing down those electricity poles, maybe some attractive street lighting, or street-scaping to give the corner a “village” feel.

Maplewood was the last to come to the table. Primarily because, city officials noted, the somewhat isolated corner hadn’t measured in any grand scheme.

“From a planning and community development standpoint, I wouldn’t say the city has done anything,” admitted Maplewood economic development coordinator Michael Martin. The reasons: the places where people live, at least on the Maplewood side, are pretty far away, separated by railroad tracks and huge tracts of land.

For now, the three cities have hired consultant Perkins & Will to give them some clues for what to do. Come July 27, the firm will present preliminary recommendations.

Right now, according to associate principal John Slack, they’re mulling such things as design concepts, infrastructure improvements, regulatory policies, noted business gaps like child care, or stores where kids might want to go — and for that matter, the possibility of creating a local business group. Even though there are dozens of businesses covering the four corners, they don’t really talk to each other.

Slack said he’s heard from some of the property owners, who seem open to better design standards, “if there was some mechanism for cost-sharing with the city.”

Brendmoen said she’s glad the firm’s getting beyond the basics.

“If they came back and said we need walkability and green space, I was ready to strangle them,” Brendmoen said. “It’s like, we know.”

SAFETY FIRST

So far, community meetings have touched on the big three buzzwords you typically hear when it comes to urban neighborhood renewal: Safety. Walkability. Greenery.

But community input has tilted heavily toward safety. The nearby homes contain plenty of poverty, according to census data. And as for the corner itself, plenty of people mentioned the other “S” word.

Stargate: the club on Maplewood’s corner. Even its former owner, Paul Xiong, was blunt about it during a council meeting in February: “I don’t want this business. It’s a headache.”

The Stargate Bar & Nightclub in Maplewood at the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Rice Street where three cities come together: St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, July 13, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

Those words came a week after a barrage of gunfire littered the ground outside with five injured people and 70 shell casings. Liquor license pulled, club closed.

Even on the Roseville side — where club-goers would park and linger after hours — “There’s no doubt that the Stargate factor played a role in perceptions of public safety. … The ratio was 10 to 1 for complaints about a particular business,” said community development director Collins.

Compare it with another grid northeast of Lexington and Larpenteur avenues, another Roseville intersection a couple of miles away, with an even bigger strip mall containing the popular Keys Cafe and Ol’ Mexico restaurants, along with apartments and single-family residences.

Same time period: Six assaults, compared with 20; one fight, compared with 19; one weapons call, compared with 15; three shots-fired calls, compared with 16; and three auto thefts, compared with 50. All that before Stargate closed.

But, “Since Stargate has been closed, we’ve had very quiet actions in that area,” said Maplewood police Cmdr. Mike Shortreed.

Let’s compare Maplewood’s data for the months after the club closed, from March 1 to mid-July, to the same months last year. In that city’s side of the corner, there were 108 non-traffic calls in that time period compared to 168 last year; 17 thefts compared to 26; two assaults compared to six; one weapons call compared to five, and no fights or auto thefts, compared to seven fights and three auto thefts last year.

Now, some residents worry what might take its place. And — considering the space is built for a club — whether old customers might return.

“If it moves forward, it will not be Stargate,” said Maplewood city spokesman George Fairbanks.

On the St. Paul side, police don’t see it as any less safe than a lot of other corners. Their data shows why: Last year, there were 183 calls for service at the corner. Just down the street, at Rice and Maryland Avenue, there were 276.

Maplewood Cmdr. Shortreed thinks the current concerns about safety may still be skewed by Stargate, even though it’s not there any more.

Haschig, who opened his State Farm agency several doors down from Stargate — just a month before the Stargate shootings — now says, “I don’t feel unsafe working here. I work late hours for our business. … We’ve moved in the right direction.”

Giant Wash and the Lamplighter Lounge in St. Paul at the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and Rice Street, where three cities come together: St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, July 13, 2017. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)

SUBSTATION WITHOUT COOPERATION

Roseville police are pushing to put a police substation at the corner, which cops from all three cities, as well as county deputies, could use. A 2,000-square-foot space, including 1,500 square feet for a community room, which would conceivably get some public use. All going into a private space still under construction, right at the corner’s edge.

The substation, the theory goes, will at least reflect a police presence. Which would lead to people feeling safe.

“Money is the cruncher,” said Roseville Police Chief Richard Mathwig. And some has been spent: His city’s nonprofit police foundation put up $4,000 to hire an architect to do design and cost estimates. Their conclusion: about $250,000 in one-time startup costs to make the space usable.

“Bulletproof glass is expensive,” Mathwig said. And that’s not including things like computers, or something to sit on.

Mathwig has met with police officials from the other cities. But the reception has been luke warm. Or worse.

“Maplewood police declined to participate,” said Maplewood city spokesman George Fairbanks.

Mathwig notes that with St. Paul, “I got a handshake agreement. … Those don’t pay too many bills.” But he acknowledged that the handshake came when St. Paul’s annual estimated portion of the lease was $2,500; it’s since shot up to $10,000.

“We are currently evaluating the cost benefits to the city, and no decision has been made at this point,” said St. Paul police spokesman Steve Linders.

Next week, Mathwig will present the plan for the substation to Roseville’s city council.

Brendmoen seems hesitant to get behind the plan, if perception of safety is the reason.

“If that were true, Railroad Island would be the safest place in the city,” Brendmoen said, referring to a neighborhood abutted by the St. Paul Police Department’s eastern district headquarters, and close to the department’s main headquarters as well. The neighborhood is not the safest place in the city.

THE UNHEARD

As talks near some kind of decision point, there’s worry about one big group that nobody’s heard from.

During a recent community meeting, Slack from Perkins & Will noted several big distinctions for the border area: a high degree of diversity, language barriers and plenty of poverty.

A big factor for all three was fairly obvious: a set of Roseville apartment buildings, just west of all the businesses, that house hundreds of mostly Karen refugees.

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